Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Oedipus Rex - Coggle Diagram
Oedipus Rex
CHARACTERS
Laius
Oedipus' true father. He mutilates his son's feet after being told by Apollo that his son will kill him. This happens anyway as Laius is the old man on the road that Oedipus kills on his way into Thebes. His character is grounded in fear of the future and desperate attempts to trick fate.
Oedipus
Solves the riddle of the Sphinx and liberates Thebes. However, he then plunges them into plague when he unknowingly marries and has children with his mother. Dashes his own eyes out at the end so he can no longer see prophecy. Two mutilations by the end of the play. He is not a typical hero, he doesn't seem as mighty or great as Achilles or Odysseus and suffers a tragic ending.
Jocasta
No agency of her own, hangs herself at the end out of shame and disgust. Subject to the powerful domineering personalities of the surrounding men e.g. Laius and Oedipus. Critical part of the plot however in nature.
Creon
Oedipus' brother: he returns from Delphi saying that Thebes must be purged from 'miasma' = pollution
Oracle of Delphi
Embodiment of the theme of prophecy = only true entity that knows the future. Founded in Classical mythology.
-
Teiresias
Blind sight-seer, says that Oedipus is the plague, living in incest with his mother. "You have your eyes but not see where you are / in sin [...] nor whom you live with"
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
-
-
FREDERICK EARL - there is something Christ-like about Oedipus' sacrifice (both are scape-goats for the greater good)
-
SIGMUND FREUD - pioneered the Oedipus complex = 'we were all destined to direct our first sexual impulses toward our mothers, and our first impulse of hatred and violence toward our mothers" ('The Interpretation of Dreams', 1900)
THEMES
Use of teichoskopia = when an event is told not shown, as it is too difficult to stage e.g. Jocasta's suicide (Ophelia's drowning)
The gods are never seen on stage, only heard about in prophecies --> do they exist? Does Oedipus' sacrifice benefit the situation?
Prophecy = influence of the gods and the theme of fate. The characters try to trick fate but don't succeed and their actions to do so end up being their downfall.
-
CONTEXT
Mentioned by Aristotle in Poetics
5th c. BC. Prophecy plays an important role.
'tragos' = goat-song (where tragedy comes from
Hamartia is not the 'tragic flaw', it is a combination of unfortunate events and the personality traits of the hero that names up the tragedy. More like a series of really bad mistakes.
-
PLOT
Character = agent in Classical Greek drama
'agents' = hoi prattontes: 'those who take actions'
It is always Oedipus' choice to do things e.g. not to return to Corinth, to kill the man on the road
Hubris is clear in Oedipus' character
Oedipus' mutilation was an attempt to destroy the prophecy, but it ends up being part of the proof when the prophecy is fulfilled.